Boys Basketball: Evanston holds off Stevenson in tight battle
BY DAN SHALIN Contributor January 17, 2012 10:42PM
Evanston, 01/17/12 Evanston's Josh Irving shoots through the Stevenson defenders during their game at Evanston High School Jan. 17. | Curtis Lehmkuhl~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 2, 2012 4:10PM
Evanston fell behind early in the fourth quarter, but responded with an 8-0 run and eventually held on for a 41-39 win over Stevenson in a nonconference game at home on Jan. 17.
The boys basketball contest had plenty of late-game intrigue, as Stevenson leading scorer Michael Fleming had two legitimate chances to put his team ahead in the final 14 seconds of regulation.
Fleming’s last good chance came with 1.5 seconds remaining, and Evanston leading 40-39. A basket almost certainly would have given the visiting Patriots the victory. But Fleming missed a jumper, and Evanston’s Matt Munro secured the rebound and then hit a free throw.
Fleming put up a desperation, three-point heave at the buzzer, but came up well short.
“Earning those stops at the end of the game, we pride ourselves on that phase of the game, and the kids believe it,” said Evanston head coach Mike Ellis. “(The kids) say the same thing I believe: ‘Give us a chance to win a game on defense and that’s the end we’d rather be at.’ ”
Guard Josh Irving led the Wildkits with 15 points, and he also guarded Fleming much of the night. Munro had one of his biggest games for Evanston, contributing eight points and 11 rebounds.
Baskets were hard to come by all night. There were 15 blocked shots in the game, nine of them by Stevenson’s Colby Cashaw.
Fleming led Stevenson with 16 points, but hit just three of 14 shots. Cashaw had 11 points and four rebounds to go with his nine rejections.
Evanston led by as many as nine points in the first half, but was only up 17-15 at the break. The home team maintained a narrow advantage through the third quarter, until Stevenson took a 31-30 lead early in the fourth on Fleming’s three free throws.
That’s when Evanston scored four straight buckets — two by Leonard Garron, one from Munro and one from Irving — eventually taking a 38-31 lead with 1:40 remaining.
But the visitors got five big points from Matt Morrissey down the stretch, which put them in position to steal a victory.
It didn’t happen. But Stevenson head coach Pat Ambrose said he was glad to see the ball in Fleming’s hands with a chance to win it late.
“Baskets were hard to come by for both teams … good defense by both teams,” Ambrose said. “I’m not disappointed in our effort or in our defense, (maybe) a little bit in our execution on offense to get a few more looks. We heated up a little in the second half. I’ll take those (last two Fleming) shots again. We just came up short.”
Evanston visits Maine South on Friday, and Stevenson heads to Zion-Benton the same night.
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